Sunday, January 24, 2016

Laurie, Kathy, and I owe much to TEACCH for what
we learned about students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

From
my early experiences came the knowledge that memory of routines was a strength
for our students. From the experiences of TEACCH collaborators came the
knowledge that the individual’s processing of visual information was another
strong skill.

(You
can find multitudes of examples of using visual cues in our Tasks Galore books.)

Our
students were learning skills through the use of these visual supports that
made tasks more meaningful, however, we needed to figure out how to help them

be more flexible and not so dependent on their same routines

deal with the abstract concept of time

manage to shift their attention from their strong interests
to learning new skills

Monday, January 11, 2016

The three of us have been working with children
and adults with autism spectrum disorders and other special needs for decades. I
started my career in the early 1970’s before there was even a law in the USA that
guaranteed a free and appropriate public education to each child regardless of
disability.

My first teaching job was in a residential
school for children with emotional handicaps. Many of these children considered
emotionally disturbed at that time would now be diagnosed with autism spectrum
disorder (ASD). Knowledge that autism was a developmental issue resulting from
the way the brain developed rather than an emotional problem caused by “refrigerator mothers” was just emerging.

My second teaching job was in a mental health program
for school-aged students who were not allowed in a public school because of
extreme physical, cognitive, or behavioral issues. Most of the students with
the challenging behaviors would have a diagnosis of ASD today.

There were no treatment models for these
students with ASD. It was much trial-and-error problem solving to determine how
we could help our students learn while also helping them manage their emotions
more effectively than by being aggressive or self-injurious.

One of our students was 14 years old and had
never been in a structured educational program. His face slapping was so severe
when he began in our program that his arms had to be restrained constantly. Our
kindness to him, our asking him to do something, our rewards for keeping his
hands down, our restraining his arms were not effective in changing this
difficult behavior.

Luckily, we figured out that he loved to work on
manipulative tasks that were understandable and that he could complete
independently. This meaningful work is what changed his behavior. Even though
he did not begin his educational program until 14 years old, he still learned
many visual, fine motor, language, and life skills. He also felt competent and
successfully entered a supported employment program when older.

This student and others at the program who would
probably be diagnosed with ASD today taught us that the typical rewards and
punishers were ineffective in changing their behaviors. Telling them what to do
did not work either.

Manipulative activities engaged them better than
social or language-based ones. They often enjoyed repeating activities that
they understood and could complete independently. When so engaged, their
difficult behaviors were seldom seen. (You might want to check out some
manipulative tasks for beginning or early learners in our first book, Tasks Galore.)

We also discovered that they enjoyed routines. We
focused on their completing 1-on-1 work and independent practice of learned
tasks. We did find that, if group activities were conducted in similar ways
each day; included turn-taking with manipulative activities; and initial group
times were very short, the students were less anxious. Over time, they were
more likely to participate.

Even though the students preferred sameness and
repetition, we needed to make changes to their manipulative tasks or group
activities so that they would continue to progress. We learned to make these
changes slowly and within the context of established routines. For example, during
group time, we would introduce new activities or songs gradually to teach a new
concept or theme. To help the students accept the change without becoming
anxious or inattentive, we first established a “What’s New?” time. Because “What’s New?” was familiar, something
different could be introduced more effectively.

We saw much improvement in behaviors and skills;
however, behaviors remained obvious during transitions, language-based
activities, and free time.

We were privileged to have Gary Mesibov, a UNC
postdoctoral fellow in psychology at the time, consult to our program. Dr.
Mesibov eventually became co-director of the TEACCH program alongside Dr. Eric
Schopler. In collaboration withDr.
Robert Reicher, Dr.Schopler
was a pioneer in proving that children with ASD did not suffer from mental
disorders. He also proved that parents of autistic children could be effective
collaborators in the treatment and education of their children.

In 1981, I became a
psychoeducational therapist at the TEACCH program. There I had the wonderful
opportunity of working with a multitude of skilled clinicians,
teachers, and parents. Among these were Laurie and Kathy.

Everyone at TEACCH continued the problem solving about
how to help these students. We had the honor of watching the children grow into
adolescents and then into adults. We also had the honor of learning from their
parents what was most challenging, important, and effective at home. The
insights gleaned from the students and parents taught us what worked and didn’t
work. Watching the children grow up
taught us what they needed to learn in order to function in life. Based on
these experiences, Dr. Mesibov was instrumental in conceptualizing how autism
was like a different culture with its unique patterns of thinking and behavior.
This idea taught us that in order to teach the students effectively, their
culture needed to be respected and understood. Their strengths recognized.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Welcome to the
new Tasks Galore Publishing blog! A blog full of fun, educational and
practical ideas to aid those with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their
caregivers.

In this inaugural
blog post we will review who we are and what we do here at Tasks Galore
Publishing! In future posts we will be
sharing information for caregivers and therapists drawing on our years of
experience as parents, teachers, and consultants.

Throughout the
years we have worked with individuals who have Autism and other special needs
in a variety of therapeutic and educational settings. It is our hope to work
with you, our readers to cover topics that are relevant to your interests and
needs.

Tasks Galore
Publishing was created to provide parents and professionals with practical
tools that will aid their children and students to become more independent in
school and society. These tools
emphasize structured teaching methods and parent/professional collaboration. Our books and products utilize colorful photos
making it easy to replicate and adapt goals for your own student. The collection covers a wide range of skills
such as fine motor skills, math, science, social studies, literacy, daily
living, cognitive, play and social skills.
How materials are presented and organized for our students with autism
is extremely important. We emphasize how
to create and teach tasks and visual strategies in a manner that allows the
students to complete their day more independently. The visual strategies used by Tasks Galore
Publishing not only benefit those individuals with ASD, but they help all
learners to be more self-confident and successful. Partial proceeds from all product sales are
donated to organizations that provide services for people with autism spectrum
disorder and their families.

And finally, each month Tasks Galore Publishing has shared a very popular Task of the Month! This posting highlights a new task and
describes in depth how and why this task may be useful. For all of our current email subscribers the
blog post is where you will now be able to find the Task
of the Month. Please be sure to visit www.tasksgalorepublishing.blogspot.com or www.tasksgalore.com and sign up for
the blog. We are unable to automatically
enroll our current email subscribers in the blog so please take a moment to
sign up!

Craft activities such as the one above, provide a wonderful opportunity for addressing skills, like fine motor,
language, sequencing, etc. Before being ready to think of what to make with
craft materials, however, most students with autism spectrum disorders and
other special needs require instruction in how to use the materials and ideas
about what to create.

This page is from
the book Climbing Art Obstacles in Autismby preschool teacher
Karen Loden-Talmage, one of Tasks Galore Publishing’s guest authors. With
input from occupational therapist Vickie Dobrofsky in how to address fine motor
goals within creative endeavors, Karen developed scores of craft activities
that incorporated written supply lists and pictures for each step. Forty-nine of these are included in her book.

Because students
learn more effectively when concepts are integrated across curriculum areas, we
choose craft activities that go along with teaching themes. This craft
activity would integrate nicely when the students are learning concepts about
animals or cold weather. Finding books to fit the theme aids literacy and
vocabulary. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear?by
Bill Martin, Jr./Eric Carle, fits nicely with this craft and theme.

After learning to
use the types of visual instructions included in Karen’s craft activities, many
students are able to complete the activity “all by themselves.” Doing
tasks without assistance gives them a sense of pride along with furthering
their intellectual growth. The routine of gathering listed materials and
following step-by-step instructions can be generalized throughout their lives.